Callebaut – 7030

One of the all-time chocolate classics. This is the bittersweet chocolate we’re all probably most familiar with. With widespread distribution and nearly universal use by 3rd-party chocolatiers, it’s a flavour you’ll almost certainly recognise. The fruity Callebaut signature stands out prominently. Very good – yes, there are better chocolates, but as a default choice it’s hard to go far wrong with this one.

Reviews

Alex Rast: 28-Jan-2006

SCORES

Score/10

Weight

Aroma:

10%

Look/snap:

5%

Taste:

35%

Melt:

5%

Length:

15%

Opinion:

30%

Total/100:

100%

INFO

Best before:

Batch num:

Source:

Supplied by:

The first thing you have to get past with 7030 is the forbidding format – 5 kg blocs. It’s not too hard, on the other hand, to find nicer sizes – they just won’t have the Callebaut name on it but rather some third-party marque. But rest assured, if the percentage is 70% and the label says “”Belgian Chocolate”” you can be virtually certain you’ve got 7030 in your hands. In these big blocs, clearly, Callebaut isn’t after perfect visuals: they’re designed for commercial use, not consumer eating. As a result there is significant rippling and bubbling, although the temper is quite good. Colour is a medium brown with a hint of red – all in all a pretty good showing for an “”industrial”” chocolate.

The aroma is the big draw. It’s powerful and chocolatey – or is it that the chocolate’s ubiquity has set the archetype of chocolatey aroma as Callebaut? No matter, it’s alluring, bold, although with a hint of bitterness, a slight woody tone reminiscent of cedar. Very red fruits also make a representation, and it’s quite evident that the chocolate is going to have a strong impact.

Right out of the chute, first taste hammers the Callebaut signature: raspberries. The chocolate is strongly sour and very red, but still pleasing and not imbalanced. The cedary tone of the aroma emerges, this time, though, more with a charred-wood characteristic, suggesting a mix of dark and light-roast beans in the blend. Unfortunately, a powerful bitterness also accompanies the flavour, and if this is perhaps to be expected in a bar of this power, it’s also unnecessary. Again, the bitter expectations may actually come *from* this bar – we’ve grown accustomed to thinking a strong bitterness is a keynote of 70%-class chocolates because of this one’s whack in this area. Nonetheless, Callebaut has done their best to minimise the damage, the sour fruitiness coming to the rescue and preventing the bar from sinking into bitter, dull oblivion.

Texture is nothing special, again, probably because of the expected application. It’s not poor, though: it’s reasonably smooth, if a little hard. The chocolate doesn’t so much melt in the mouth as it does soften, becoming slightly pasty. All to be expected with cocoa butter pushing 40%. And “”expected”” is more or less the bottom line with this chocolate. Everything goes as planned, there are no sudden surprises, it’s a fine default chocolate for everyday use. This is a chocolate that virtually defines “”industry standard””.